Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

India experienced severe working-hour and employment losses in 2020 and 2021, and Indian youth employment deteriorated in 2021 compared to 2020, according to the Global Employment Trends for Youth 2022 report released by the International Labour Organisation.

Key Findings

• The pandemic has worsened the numerous labour market challenges facing those aged between 15 and 24 years. 
• Youngsters in this age group experienced a much higher percentage loss in employment than adults since early 2020.
• The total global number of unemployed youth is estimated to reach 73 million in 2022, a slight improvement from 2021 (75 million), but still six million above the pre-pandemic level of 2019,”

Finding in India

• In India, the report said surveys conducted by the Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy show that the youth employment participation rate declined by 0.9 percentage points over the first nine months of 2021 relative to its value in 2020, 
• It increased by 2 percentage points for adults over the same time period. 
• The situation is particularly severe for very young people aged 15-20 years.
• The unemployment rate of young people in the Asia and Pacific region is projected to reach 14.9% in 2022,  
• Quality education and training opportunities are required to create decent jobs, especially in green, blue and digital economies.
• In India, the report added that school closures lasted 18 months and among the 24 crore school-going children, only 8% of such children in rural areas and 23% in urban areas had adequate access to online education. 
• Given the deeply unequal access to online resources in developing countries, children from socio-economically disadvantaged families, which are the large majority, had almost no access to education.
• School closures not only prevented new learning, but also led to the phenomenon of “learning regression”, that is, children forgetting what they had learned earlier.
• In India, 92% of children on average lost at least one foundational ability in language and 82% lost at least one foundational ability in mathematics.
• The report appreciated the MGNREGA and said it has played an important role in providing paid employment, particularly for women, but also in carbon sequestration because of the Act’s focus on natural resources, such as land, water and trees, which provide adaptation benefits.
• India has a very low youth female labour market participation and Indian young women experienced larger relative employment losses than young men in 2021 and 2022.
• In general, the high youth employment losses in India drive up the global average employment losses.
• Young Indian men account for 16% of young men in the global labour market, while the corresponding share for young Indian women is just 5%.

It highlighted Quality education and training opportunities are required to create decent jobs, especially in green, blue and digital economies, and to set economies on the path towards greater sustainability, inclusiveness and resilience.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

National Intellectual Property Awareness Mission (NIPAM) has achieved target of imparting Intellectual Property (IP) awareness and basic training to 1 million students on 31st July 2022, ahead of the deadline which was 15 August 2022. 

• NIPAM, a flagship program to impart IP awareness and basic training, was launched on 8 Dec 2021 as a part of “Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav” celebrations. 
• The program is being implemented by Intellectual Property Office, the Office of Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (CGPDTM), Ministry of Commerce and Industry. 

During the period 08 December 2021 to 31st July 2022, the following milestones achieved:

• No. of participants (students/faculty) trained on IP = 10, 05, 272
• Educational institutes covered = 3662
• Geographical coverage = 28 states and 7 Union Territories

The way forward is to strengthen the NIPAM program further to nurture and encourage innovation and creativity, thereby contributing towards cultural and economic development of the society through a revamped manner utilizing the existing resources of the IP Office in collaboration with Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), AICTE, UGC etc.      

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Russia is likely to have deployed anti-personnel mines to deter freedom of movement along its defensive lines in the Donbas. 

• The UK Ministry of Defence, in its intelligence assessment of the ongoing war in Ukraine, has and sounded an alarm on the possible use of PFM-1 series ‘Butterfly Mines’ by the Russian military in Donetsk and Kramatorsk.

What is the intelligence assessment put out by UK ?

• As per an intelligence bulletin, Russia is likely to have deployed anti-personnel mines to deter freedom of movement along its defensive lines in the Donbas.
• These mines have the potential to inflict widespread casualties amongst both the military and the local civilian population.
• In Donetsk and Kramatorsk, Russia has highly likely attempted employment of PFM-1 and PFM-1S scatterable anti-personnel mines.
• Commonly called the ‘butterfly mine’, the PFM-1 series are deeply controversial, indiscriminate weapons.
• PFM-1s were used to devastating effect in the Soviet-Afghan War where they allegedly maimed high numbers of children who “mistook them for toys,” .
• It is highly likely that the Soviet-era stock being used by Russia will have degraded over time and is now unreliable and unpredictable.
• This poses a threat to both the local population and humanitarian mine clearance operations.

What is the ‘Butterfly Mine’ and why is it called so?

• The PFM-1 and PFM-1S are two kinds of anti-personnel landmines that are commonly referred to as ‘Butterfly mines’ or ‘Green Parrots’.
• These names are derived from the shape and colour of the mines.
• The main difference between the PFM-1 and PFM-1S mine is that the latter comes with a self destruction mechanism which gets activated within one to 40 hours.
• The ‘Butterfly mine’ has earned a reputation for being particularly attractive to children because it looks like a coloured toy. 
• It is very sensitive to touch and just the act of picking it up can set it off. 
• Because of the relatively lesser explosive packed in this small mine, it often injures and maims the handler rather than killing them. 
• These mines are also difficult to detect because they are made of plastic and can evade metal detectors.
• These mines can be deployed in the field of action through several means, which include being dropped from helicopters or through ballistic dispersion using artillery and mortar shells. 
• These mines glide to the ground without exploding and later explode on coming in contact. 
• Since these mines were green in colour when they were first put to use they also earned the name ‘Green Parrots’.

What are the technical specifications of this mine?

• The PFM series mines are moulded in polythene plastic and have two wings, one of which is heavier than the other. 
• The thicker wing is the pressure activation for the main fuse which is contained in the central body. 
• The thinner wing acts as a stabiliser for the mine when it is air-dropped, thus giving it the name ‘butterfly’. 
• As per data available on the mine, a pressure exceeding 5 kg will activate the mine which contains 40g of explosive.
• The rapid means of deployment of the mine and the fact that it can be indiscriminately scattered to impede the advance of an enemy makes it an attractive option for a field commander, regardless of the danger that these can pose for non-combatants living in the area.

Are these kind of mines allowed by international law?

• The anti personal mines are banned by international convention on land lines but Russia and Ukraine are not signatories to it. 
• However, there is a 1996 Amended Protocol II to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons-the Landlines Protocol to which Russia and Ukraine are signatories.

In the ongoing conflict, both countries have accused each other of having used these mines, since both posses them in sufficient numbers. Allegations and counter-allegations of the use of these mines have been made in Mariupol, Kharkiv and now Donetsk.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

The first-of-its-kind study raises new concerns about how fast climate change is weakening Antarctica’s floating ice shelves and accelerating the rise of global sea levels.

• Antarctica’s coastal glaciers are shedding icebergs more rapidly than nature can replenish the crumbling ice, doubling previous estimates of losses from the world’s largest ice sheet over the past 25 years,a satellite analysis showed.
• The first-of-its-kind study, led by researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Los Angeles and published in the journal Nature, raises new concern about how fast climate change is weakening Antarctica’s floating ice shelves and accelerating the rise of global sea levels.
• The study’s key finding was that the net loss of Antarctic ice from coastal glacier chunks “calving” off into the ocean is nearly as great as the net amount of ice that scientists already knew was being lost due to thinning caused by the melting of ice shelves from below by warming seas.
• Taken together, thinning and calving have reduced the mass of Antarctica’s ice shelves by 12 trillion tons since 1997, double the previous estimate, the analysis concluded.
• The net loss of the continent’s ice sheet from calving alone in the past quarter-century spans nearly 37,000 sq km (14,300 sq miles), an area almost the size of Switzerland, according to JPL scientist Chad Greene, the study’s lead author.
• “Antarctica is crumbling at its edges,”  a NASA announcement of the findings. 
• When ice shelves dwindle and weaken, the continent’s massive glaciers tend to speed up and increase the rate of global sea level rise.”
• The consequences could be enormous. Antarctica holds 88% of the sea level potential of all the world’s ice.
• Ice shelves, permanent floating sheets of frozen freshwater attached to land, take thousands of years to form and act like buttresses holding back glaciers that would otherwise easily slide off into the ocean, causing seas to rise.
• In recent decades, though, warming oceans have weakened the shelves from underneath, a phenomenon previously documented by satellite altimeters measuring the changing height of the ice and showing losses averaging 149 million tons a year from 2002 to 2020, according to NASA.
• The accelerated glacial calving, like ice thinning, was most pronounced in West Antarctica, an area hit harder by warming ocean currents.
• But even in East Antarctica, a region whose ice shelves were long considered less vulnerable, are witnessing more losses than gains.

The losses measured from calving outpaced natural ice shelf replenishment so greatly that researchers found it unlikely Antarctica can return to pre-2000 glacier levels by the end of this century.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

The Supreme Court said it will consider a plea seeking a lifetime ban on people convicted of offences from contesting elections and becoming Members of Parliament and State Legislative Assemblies.

• The Centre had, in an affidavit filed in 2020, maintained in court that disqualification under the Representation of the People Act of 1951 for the period of prison sentence and six years thereafter was enough for legislators.
• In its affidavit in December 2020, the Ministry had rejected the idea of a lifetime ban on convicted persons contesting elections or forming or becoming an office-bearer of a political party. 
• The Ministry had reasoned that MPs and MLAs were not bound by specific “service conditions”. 
• They are bound by their oath to serve citizens and country.
• They are bound by propriety, good conscience and interest of the nation.
• The Centre’s stand in 2020 contradicted that of the Election Commission of India (ECI). 
• In 2017, the top poll body endorsed the call for a lifetime ban in the apex court. It had argued that such a move would “champion the cause of decriminalisation of politics”. 
• The ECI had then agreed in the Supreme Court that a ban would be in the spirit of fundamental rights of the Constitution, including the right to equality.

Provisions of disqualification under Representation of Peoples Act 1951:

Section 8 deals with disqualification of representatives on conviction for certain offences. A person can be disqualified on below grounds:

• Disqualification on conviction for certain election offences and corrupt practices in the election.
• A person convicted of any offence and sentenced to imprisonment for not less than two years.
• Disqualification on the ground of corrupt practices.
• Disqualification for dismissal for corruption or disloyalty.
• Disqualification for office under Government Company.
• Disqualification for failure to lodge account of election expenses.
• Disqualification for promoting enmity between different groups or for the offence of bribery.
• A person must not have been punished for preaching and practicing social crimes such as Untouchability, Dowry, Sati etc.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

In the spirit of AzadikaAmritMahotsav, the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Government of India, has identified 75 Municipal Corporations to implement comprehensive rehabilitation of persons engaged in the act of begging under “SMILE: Support for Marginalised Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise” named as “SMILE-75 Initiative”.

• Under the SMILE-75 initiative, seventy five (75) Municipal Corporations in collaboration with NGOs and other stakeholders will cover several comprehensive welfare measures for persons who are engaged in the act of begging with focus extensively on rehabilitation, provision of medical facilities, counselling, awareness, education, skill development, economic linkages and convergence with other Government welfare programmes etc.
• The Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment has allocated a total budget of Rs.100 crore for the SMILE project for coming years till 2025-26.
• Through this project, the Ministry envisions to develop a support mechanism for holistic rehabilitation of those engaged in the act of begging and build an India where no person is forced to beg in order to survive and fulfill their basic needs.
• The objective of SMILE- 75 is to make our cities/town and municipal areas begging-free and make a strategy for comprehensive rehabilitation of the persons engaged in the act of begging through the coordinated action of various stakeholders. 
• The Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment understands the important role of Local Urban Bodies, Civil Society Organisations/Non-Government Organisations to address this persisting social issue with concerted efforts.
• The Government of India has recognised the persisting problem of destitution and beggary and formulated a comprehensive scheme of SMILE (Support for Marginalised Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise) which includes a sub-scheme of comprehensive rehabilitation for persons engaged in begging which covers identification, rehabilitation, provision of medical facilities, counselling, and education, skill development for decent job and self-employment / entrepreneurship.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

At least 35 people have been found infected with Langya virus in Shandong and Henan provinces of China.

• Langya Henipavirus: A new zoonotic virus has been discovered in the country’s two eastern provinces with 35 infections identified so far. 
• This new type of Henipavirus is also being called Langya Henipavirus or the LayV.
• Henipaviruses are classified as biosafety level 4 (BSL4) pathogens.
• They can cause severe illness in animals and humans, and as of now there are no licensed drugs or vaccines meant for humans.

What is Langya virus?

• The newly discovered virus is a “phylogenetically distinct Henipavirus”.
•  A Zoonotic Henipavirus in Febrile Patients in China published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
• The types of Henipaviruses that had been identified prior to this included Hendra, Nipah, Cedar, Mojiang and the Ghanaian bat virus.
• According to the US CDC, the Cedar virus, Ghanaian bat virus, and Mojiang virus are not known to cause human disease. 
• But Hendra and Nipah infect humans and can cause fatal illness.
• Langya, meanwhile, is known to cause fever.

How was Langya virus discovered?

• Langya was discovered in eastern China during surveillance testing of patients who had fever along with a recent history of animal exposure. 
• It was identified and isolated from the throat swab sample of one of those patients. 
• According to the NEJM study, 35 patients with LayV infection were found in Shandong and Henan provinces, out of which 26 were only infected with this new virus and no other pathogen.

What are the symptoms of Langya virus?

• While all 26 had fever, 54% reported fatigue, 50% had cough, 38% complained of nausea.
• Also, 35% of the total 26, complained of headache and vomiting.
• The study found that 35% had impaired liver function, while 8% had their kidney function impacted.
• The patients were accompanied by abnormalities of “thrombocytopenia (35%), leukopenia (54%), impaired liver (35%) and kidney (8%) function”, the study noted.
• Thrombocytopenia is low platelet count, while leukopenia means a fall in the white blood cell count, in turn reducing the body’s disease-fighting capability.

Where has Langya virus come from?

• In all likelihood, the new virus has jumped from an animal to humans.
• The LayV virus RNA has been predominantly found in shrews, which may be its natural hosts. 
• The study zeroed in on shrews after conducting a serosurvey of domestic and wild animals. 
• Among domestic animals, seropositivity was detected in goats and dogs.

What about human-to-human transmission?

• There are no clear answers yet.
• The authors of the study have underlined that the sample size of their investigation is too small to determine human-to-human transmission.
• However, they point out that among the 35 patients infected by LayV, there was “no close contact or common exposure history”, which suggests that the “infection in the human population may be sporadic”.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Aiming to curb rising malpractices in the digital lending ecosystem, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued guidelines for entities engaged in digital lending.

The norms stating that all digital loans must be disbursed and repaid through bank accounts of regulated entities only, without pass-through of lending service providers (LSPs) or other third parties.

• The norms follow the recommendations of a working group for digital lending, whose report was made public last November. 
• The concerns primarily relate to unbridled engagement of third parties, mis-selling, breach of data privacy, unfair business conduct, charging of exorbitant interest rates, and unethical recovery practices.

The regulator classified digital lenders into three categories: 

• Entities regulated by the RBI and permitted to carry out lending business, 
• Entities authorised to carry out lending as per other statutory or regulatory provisions but not regulated by the RBI.
• Entities lending outside the purview of any statutory or regulatory provisions.
• The latest regulatory framework is focussed on the digital lending ecosystem of RBI’s regulated entities (REs) and the LSPs engaged by them to extend credit facilitation services. 
• As for entities falling in the second category, the respective regulator may consider formulating rules on digital lending, based on the recommendations of the working group.
• For entities in the third category, the working group has suggested specific legislative and institutional interventions for consideration by the government to curb illegitimate lending.
• Apart from direct disbursals and repayments of digital loans, the norms mandate that any fees or charges payable to LSPs in the credit intermediation process shall be paid directly by the RE and not by the borrower.
• A standardised key fact statement (KFS) must be provided to the borrower before executing the loan contract. 
• The all-inclusive cost of digital loans in the form of annual percentage rate (APR) will have to be disclosed to borrowers. The APR shall also form part of KFS. 
• Automatic increases in credit limit without the explicit consent of borrowers has been prohibited. 
• The loan contract must provide for a cooling-off or look-up period during which borrowers can exit digital loans by paying the principal and the proportionate APR without any penalty.
• All digital lending products extended by REs over merchant platforms involving short term credit or deferred payments must also be reported to credit bureaus by the REs.

What is digital lending?

• Digital lending refers to the online disbursal of loans where all processes, including loan approval and recovery, take place remotely, typically through mobile apps.
• A borrower-friendly approach, reduced paperwork, high availability, and economic implications of the covid pandemic are the reasons for the increased surge in digital lending.

Significance of Digital Lending

• It helps in meeting the huge unmet credit need, particularly in the micro enterprise and low-income consumer segment in India.
• It helps in reducing informal borrowings as it simplifies the process of borrowing.
• It decreases time spent on working loan applications in-branch. Digital lending platforms have also been known to cut overhead costs by 30-50%.

Challenges

• Rising bad loans in the retail segment could be a big worry.
• Aggressive growth of digital lending at the cost of quality of lending can lead to deterioration of asset quality for banks.

Steps Taken by RBI:

• Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) and banks need to state the names of online platforms they are working with.
• A separate legislation should be enacted to oversee Digital Lending.
• Digital lending apps should be subjected to a verification process by a nodal agency to be set up in consultation with stakeholders.
• Regulators may consider introducing interest rate caps in a phased manner, broadly in line with the effective interest rates of credit cards.
• Disbursement of loans should be made directly into the bank accounts of borrowers, and servicing of loans should be done only through the bank accounts of the digital lenders.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Sadia Hussain’s article, ‘Performance of Women in Parliament: A Quantitative Study of Questions by Women Members in Lok Sabha (1999-2019)’ draws attention to women’s performance in the Lok Sabha through a quantitative analysis of the questions posed by women leaders on the floor.

It was found that contrary to general belief, women representatives asked more questions on health and family welfare, human resource development, home affairs, finance, agriculture and railways than women’s issues.

Women in politics

• Women have had to use alternate methods to come to power. Education and wealth have aided women in political participation.
• Studies suggest that more women have started to organise themselves into economic groups, and financial freedom has pushed them to be more politically active. 
• The decreased gap in voter turnout between men and women is a positive sign toward gender inclusivity in the political sphere. 
• The 2019 general election was a historic moment for women’s politics, as it saw 78 women elected to the lower house of Parliament for the first time since independence where only 22 women were present in the 543-member Lok Sabha.

Access to power versus participation

• Women’s performance during the Question Hour session becomes relevant as it is a space where legislators act free from party regulation. 
• Substantive representation or acting in the interest of those represented defines the quality of a leader. It becomes imperative to analyse whether descriptive representation transforms into substantive representation.
• The author analyses these research questions through the study of parliamentary sessions. The questions asked during the Question Hour of Parliamentary sessions between the years 1999 to 2019 were specifically chosen as they involved four general elections with governments completing their full five-year terms with two different ruling coalitions. 
• As part of the evaluation, the number of questions raised by representatives, the Ministries under which they fell, and the content of questions including terms like ‘women’, ‘girls’, ‘rape’, ‘crimes against women’ and ‘maternal’, were collected and categorised.

Breaking Stereotypes

• The study reveals how descriptive representation transforms into substantive representation. 
• It goes against the popular notion that women members only touch upon softer issues or that they are silent spectators in Parliament.
• Though men asked more questions and participated in more debates than women, there has been a substantial increase in the number of questions women asked. 
• Moreover, contrary to general belief, women representatives asked more questions on health and family welfare, human resource development, home affairs, finance, agriculture and railways than women’s issues. 
• Male legislators asked more questions on issues concerning women than their female counterparts. 
• These are very welcoming signs as the representatives were seen not to be held back by gender stereotypes.
• Members from marginal States, irrespective of gender asked fewer questions. 
• Party affiliations, education, regional background, ethnicity, caste and the age of women members played a role in the number and content of questions asked in the lower house. 
• The paper studies the friction between the burden women bear to represent women’s issues more and on the other hand, being concerned in representing the issues pertaining to the general public at large. 
• What lies underneath is the problem of structural inequality, wherein women are marginalised at different levels. Through examples of Latin American Parliaments, the author explains how proportional representation will lead to a better representation of women’s interests.
• Moreover, representation becomes a phenomenon that cannot be isolated from society. Social, cultural, economic, religious and political factors affect the process.

The increased political participation is a positive sign toward gender inclusivity and equality in the political sphere. But it has a long way to go, considering the socio-economic and cultural conditions that still socialise women into being averse to politics, hindering them from pursuing politics as a career.